Data storage management requires regular maintenance in order for the data storage system to operate optimally. Typically, an amount of data storage necessary to support a consumer expands. Additionally, other types of data storage issues may change for a consumer, including data access, scalability, availability, redundancy and data protection. In order to optimize performance of a storage system, the hardware and operating software of a computing system of a storage system is configured to suit the requirements of a particular consumer.
Additional software, software updates, and/or new hardware may be employed to support a change in the storage system to provide additional storage or additional functionality. A drawback associated with software or hardware installation may be the concurrent loss of configuration settings of the storage system. Additionally, during a catastrophic failure of the storage system, while data may be retrievable, configuration settings for the storage network are typically lost. When configuration settings for a storage system are lost, an administrator of the storage network must manually reset the configuration settings as they were prior to the new installation or failure. This may lead to excessive down-time of the storage system.
In general, configuration settings refer to the information or data required by a computer system of the storage system to integrate its component parts into the overall system for purposes of enabling the set up and sound operation of the storage system. When installing hardware and software, configuration data may be used in configuring the system and the methodical process of defining options that are provided by the hardware and software for installation. Any setting that may be designated by an administrator of a storage system may be included within a set of configuration settings. For example, configuration settings of a storage system include data pertaining to specific hardware, (CPU, hard drives, local storage, remote storage, peripherals and the like) and software (operating system, BIOS, interfaces, applications, and the like) along with details of devices coupled to the storage system such as type, capability and the like. When the storage system is part of a network, configuration settings may include information about I/O devices and the network that enables communication between the operating system of a computer and those devices of the network including communication protocols and features relating to communication protocols. A set of configuration settings may also include tree structures, drivers, logical unit settings, licenses, permissions and the like.
With such a vast amount of information associated with a configuration of a storage system, any loss of a set of configuration settings causes a substantial amount of resources and time dedicated to re-build the storage network. Consequently, a method and system for archiving and retrieving configuration information for the storage system is necessary.